According to Facebook, an update sent from a brand page only reaches 16% of their fans on average. This may not seem like a big deal, but it is pretty discouraging when you realize the opportunities you are missing out on. Luckily, Facebook is providing access to tools designed to help increase the visibility of those crucial updates. Here are two that social networking managers can use to make sure their posts are seen by more fans:

1. Reach Generator

Earlier this year, Facebook introduced a collection of new advertising features designed to help brands enhance the strength and reach of their marketing content. One of those features was the aptly titled Reach Generator, which as Facebook explains, ensures that content from brand pages reaches 75% of fans. Available with select ad products, the Reach Generator counters the pay-per-click method by giving social networking managers the ability to pay for advertising on the basis of a flat fee. Whether or not you can really reach 75% of your fans remains to be seen, but Facebook seems pretty confident than you will reach far more than the 16% most updates average.

2. Promoted Posts

Even more recently, Facebook launched Promoted Posts, a new feature that hence the name, allows owners of brand pages to promote their status updates to more fans. With this feature, you are able to pay between $5 to $300 per post and obviously, the more you pay, the more you are able to reach. This feature is being rolled out slowly, so it is not yet available to all page owners. If it is, you will notice a “Promote” button displayed on the box you use to post your status updates. Clicking this button opens up options that you can use to choose how many people you want to see your posts.

Bye Bye Edgerank

Algorithms are a big part of the technologies that deliver data to the end user. Edgerank is the algorithm Facebook uses to determine how many fans see posts made from a brand page. Unfortunately, it puts marketers at a disadvantage by limiting reach well below 50% of their total audience. With the additions of the Reach Generator and Promoted Posts, Facebook is giving social networking managers the power to go beyond Edgerank and reach a much bigger portion of their fans. No more hoping you’ll luck up and crank out a post that is seen by more people than the average.

Now that it is a publicly traded company, Facebook has to do all it can to keep its new shareholders happy. While that relationship has gotten off to a rough start, offering tools that give brands the power to extend reach should be to their liking. Social networking managers also have a reason to rejoice because these features offer the promise of increasing their visibility and overall presence in the digital space. As long as users don’t object, good times can be had by all.